Summer Zoomed By!

Oh my! Here it is nearly August and I haven't blogged since April! Well, it's been a little busy, though, with what I sort of forget!
In May, we celebrated Clayton's 2nd birthday with a tractor themed party...still have to get pics from my sister for that one. We did Mother's Day stepping stones, which I need to make a few for my own garden, and Dennis traveled quite a bit for work.
June and July, we've spent playing. Really, we've been to the zoo a few times, the Tulsa Air & Space Museum, Muskogee Water Park, a movie, visiting my grandparents at their cabin, Fourth of July cookout, Dennis's birthday, visiting friends, and I can't even remember what else other than lots of outdoors time. The weather has been fantastic this summer with pretty mild summer temps and rain...yes, rain...in late July!
Our garden continues to make all sorts of great produce for us, so this summer, I have cut our grocery expense quite a bit on the produce part. The kids enjoy getting out in the yard with me and helping out a little.

That about wraps up May, June, and July for us. Clayton starts Kids' Day Out on Monday and Cooper starts homeschool Kindergarten with me the same day. We are super excited (and a little nervous) to start this new adventure but it will be amazing!

Springing Up

Coop and Daddy hanging out

 I haven't posted in a while...something about being busy with boys! Spring seems to be here extra early this year...like a month early! The boys are growing like weeds, of course. In a month, Clayton will be one year old!!
Cooper is getting tall and he has discovered fishing with Daddy. They don't get much fishing done, but he thinks it's the best thing ever. He managed to get a hook in his hand (barely) and nearly gave it up, but after he got home and did his dramatic cry and took a bath, the little spot he hooked was nowhere to be found. He has decided he would like to go again.

One of my peach trees blooming (mid-March)

Cruising!

Silly Cooper

Wagon ride

I took this April 6th about 8pm...the moon is orange and it was way cool

My roses blooming in April--they usually don't bloom til right before Mother's Day

Clayton is getting a mouth full of teeth! He has two on top and four on bottom right now and working on a couple more. He is also cruising around quite quickly and it won't be long before he figures out how to walk....them heaven help me, I'm in trouble!

We've been enjoying the mild weather and we are ready to go camping anytime now, especially before it gets to be scorching hot!!

I have our garden nearly planted. We got a lot of rain over spring break and I wasn't able to plant corn and okra and my flowers around the garden, just the raised beds.The boys are all sorts of help out there, as you can imagine...Clayton hangs out in the wagon or I wait til he is napping and Cooper actually does help a little with watering and he helped plant some seeds. He loves to check things out with me to see what's coming up. It's lots of fun to watch our garden (and our babies) grow!

My raised beds are all planted with potatoes and peas going crazy

Clayton is on the move!

Spring Break

Well, with the baby date approaching rather quickly (9 more weeks- right on track and doing good!!), we are trying to get a little bit of camping in while we have nice weather. So, we headed out to Tenkiller State Park and some friends met up with us that have two boys, one a little older and one a little younger than Cooper. We just camped the weekend and didn't do much of anything but a little scenic driving and watching the kids play, but they had a blast and it was a nice way to end our Spring Break. This week, it's back to running around....doctor appointments, speech, church stuff.....it's a lengthy list. It was nice to have a week "off", at least for me and Cooper, and to catch up on some much needed rest.

Boys being boys...

Camping

We took a couple days off to go camping last Thursday and Friday and came home Saturday. We went to Robber's Cave State Park in Wilburton, which we had never been to before and we had a lot of fun taking it easy and checking out the scenery. Luckily, we decided to wait til Thursday morning to leave after we got some nasty storms Wednesday night. On Thursday, we checked out the park area, including making a trek to the cave and visiting the Nature Center. Friday, we took a little drive to Pocola, Oklahoma and picked our own strawberries at Wild Things Farm. We love camping together and making memories that will last forever!

Retreating

I had such a great time last weekend! I went to a ladies retreat with our church and had so much fun! It was at Camp Egan in Tahlequah and it was beautiful there. I wish I had remembered my camera, though. Saturday morning, I was up and about with the sun and I made a trip up the really steep trail to the top of this cliff that overlooks part of the Illinois River and all the hills in that area, it was cold up there, but really nice and quiet. I just sat up there for a little while (only about 10 minutes, before I got too cold) and enjoyed watching the hawks circle, then I headed back down. Mind you, I am not a dare devil, but I tend to do things that I should really not do alone, but I made it back down the steep, brush cluttered hill just fine and it helped me to remember what our theme,"Unplug from the World" really meant. I had so much fun learning and studying Scripture, and getting to know some of the women better. I even learned how to use a knitting loom and am in the process of making a scarf. Chloe informed me today that she wants a purple and pink one, so I now have a second project when I'm finished with this one. I am so thankful to Mamaw and Papaw, who let Cooper sleep over the weekend with them, so we all three had a little break from the usual. I will definitely go again, it was just awesome!